1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed to cable management assemblies that facilitates routing of cables and, more particularly, to cable management assemblies that are easily and efficiently mounted with respect to racks, frames, enclosures and other cable-related structures in vertical or horizontal orientations.
2. Background
It is common to store computers, servers and other electronic equipment on or in racks, frames and cabinets. Numerous cables and wires are routinely required to power and interconnect these units, as is well known in the art. Efficient, reliable and organized routing of cables and wires to and from such equipment is highly desirable, but not easily achieved.
Prior art efforts have been devoted to developing raceways for routing cables and wires to and from equipment mounted/stored on/in racks, frames and cabinets. Prior art raceways generally permit cables/wires to be routed to equipment mounted/stored on/in racks, frames and cabinets. The routed cables/wires may enter the raceway from a variety of locations, e.g., from other equipment on the rack/frame/cabinet, from an overhead raceway, and/or from an underfloor raceway. With conventional raceways, cables/wires are generally routed vertically to a desired height, and then horizontally to an interconnection position relative to the desired equipment unit.
Prior art teachings that relate to the field of cable management include U.S. Pat. No. 2,921,607 to Caveney, U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,949 to Weiss, U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,811 to Viklund et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,565 to Krietzman et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,946,605 to Levesque et al. Cable management products/systems are commercially available from numerous manufacturers, including Ortronics, Inc. (New London, Conn.), Panduit Corporation (Tinley Park, Ill.) and Chatsworth Products, Inc. (Westlake Village, Calif.).
For example, Ortronics commercially offers “snap type” cable management rings (OR-60400302) that are designed to promote efficient routing of patch and cross connect cables. The commercially available snap type rings include two spaced/aligned extensions that snap in place on the front and back of Mighty Mo® racks and generally accommodate up to thirty five (35) Category 6 cables. To accommodate the snap type rings, Mighty Mo® racks include spaced/aligned apertures that are sized to receive the extensions that include spring-finger anchor mechanisms for retention purposes. Of note, to release a snap type ring from a rack, it is disadvantageously necessary to pinch the spring-fingers together from the rear and then push the snap type ring out of engagement from the rack.
Despite efforts to date, a need remains for cable management assemblies that may be easily and securely mounted with respect to a rack/frame/cabinet/enclosure for routing cables/wires to and from equipment that is stored therein/thereon in both vertical and horizontal orientations.